


sounds like a downfall

by uwumeup



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Band Fic, Gen, M/M, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:49:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27599162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uwumeup/pseuds/uwumeup
Summary: All Skeppy had wanted to do was drown himself in his drumming, it was the easiest way for him to get things off his mind, especially the fact that he’d been looking even less forward to their break day than usual, even with the practice scheduled.  His hands itched, getting more and more antsy as the day went on, and he wished he could've had his drum set with him then, even if just to jam out with Vurb in the hotel room, wished he could get back to performing, get back to the venue.'Get back to Bad,' a voice in the back of Skeppy's head divulged, and more than anything he wished that burying his face in his pillow made it easier to bury that thought.-alternatively, the skephalo band AU (ft. the idots and dream team) that nobody asked for
Relationships: Zak Ahmed/Darryl Noveschosch
Comments: 46
Kudos: 158





	1. Chapter 1

"Zak, get over here, we're starting in like, five minutes!"

"I'm trying to find my extra pair of sticks, just give me a second!"

Zelk snickered as Skeppy moved to stand up from where he'd been knelt, knocking his head against a set of lights in the process. "You mean, your extra _extra_ pair?"

"Yeah, do you really need another? I mean, you've already got spares." Spifey gestured to the drumsticks sat on the speaker beside him, "Besides, it's not like we're playing a full show or anything, we're just opening. Can't you go thirty minutes without breaking two pairs?"

"I mean, maybe, but I’d rather have extras and not need them than not have them when I do - ‘better to be safe than sorry,’ or whatever." Skeppy let out another string of curses, knocking over what must have been the third mic stand, and earning himself a glare from Mega, who begrudgingly moved to prop it back up.

"They're probably back at the hotel," Finn chimed in, "Vurb forgot one of the bags there, I think you might've stuck a pair inside that one."

"Oh come on, don't pin this all on me, it’s not my fault!" Vurb pouted.

"But it _is_ your fault," Finn pointed out, laughing, "You literally had two jobs - bring your guitar and bring the bag, and you failed at half of them."

"Well, is there anything I could do to make up for it?"

He rolled his eyes at Vurb's raised brow, turning back to Skeppy. "I’d say there's not any point in trying to keep looking for them. If you end up breaking both your pairs, we'll just play without you."

"Oh yeah, I'd like to see you guys try."

Letting out a huff of defeat, Skeppy leaned himself against the wall, picking up one of his drumsticks and taking turns twiddling it between his fingers and drumming it against the side of the speaker. He could hear Spifey start plucking at his bass apprehensively beside him, and sighed. As many shows as the band had done together, they still always got jittery right beforehand, it’d been like that since they’d started playing all those years ago, and Skeppy honestly wouldn’t be surprised if they were always like that, especially not when it came to shows as important to their careers as these ones. When you’d been trying to get a push into the industry for so long, even the smallest of wrong moves felt like ten steps backwards.

For a moment, Skeppy really wished that Harvey had been with them, and he knew the rest of his bandmates were probably thinking the same. Usually he was the one to get them out of that anxiety-ridden state and ready to go on stage, but of course it just so happened that he was busy that week. This meant that Mega, who usually hung more in the background handling their management and such, had been given the role of their ‘cheerleader.’

He wasn’t doing the best job, in fact, he didn’t seem to be doing that job at all, considering he had seemingly vanished from the room.

Zelk broke him out of his thoughts with a nudge on the shoulder, nodding his head towards a few figures chatting in the shadows further backstage. Skeppy squinted, but couldn’t make out anything more than silhouettes. 

"That's the other band,” He clarified.

"Yeah," Spifey muttered, "the Dream Team. This is by far the biggest group we've ever opened for."

"I don't see what's so special about them - I don't think I've even heard one of their songs before." More so than that, Skeppy was fairly sure that he hadn't even caught wind of the band before Mega had brought to their attention that they were looking for an opening act after having their previous one have to cancel a few shows last minute. It was an opportunity that they'd only jumped on once Spifey brought up that he recognized one of their songs from hearing it on the radio and the band realized how big of a break it could be for them.

"Wait, really?" Finn asked. "I mean, I know they just blew up kind of recently, but they've gotten really big. You didn't even listen to any of their music before you came?"

Skeppy shrugged, "I figured I'd hear it here anyways during the rehearsal, but they didn't even let us practice with them or anything. What's up with that anyways?"

"Apparently they're super secretive with their sets, so they don't even allow anyone outside of, like, ten people in while they're practicing." Spifey explained, before pointing in the direction of the trio. "The one with the mask over his face is Dream, he's their guitarist and kind of the frontman of the group."

"Oh, yeah! Girls are super into the whole 'mystery man' thing he's got going on." Vurb said. "Apparently not even the backstage crew have seen him with it off, he wears it everywhere in public."

He'd heard about that a bit beforehand too. Apparently the whole shtick had been a big contributor to their popularity, but Dream had been wearing it since the very beginning. There were rumours that he’d been in an accident or had some horrific facial defect and was using it to cover everything up, but Skeppy couldn’t imagine it being anything like that. Really, if he were in the guy’s position, with swarms of teenage girls longing to watch his every move, he’d want a bit of privacy too. 

The drummer squinted in the direction of the band again, "What about the others?"

"The one with the bandana is Sapnap, he's their lead singer and bassist, and the one with the white glasses is George, their keyboardist." Spifey continued. “Pretty sure that’s it.

"...What do you mean 'that's it?' Do they not have a percussionist or anything?" At the shrug he received, Skeppy huffed, "So, what, they seriously got this far using recordings of sampled tracks? That's bullshit."

A surprised laugh slipped past Finn’s lips at his outburst, "Dude, why are you getting so heated about this?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe it's because I've spent the past, like, eight years with you guys as a drummer and somehow this new band shows up, says 'screw that,’ and get ten times more popular than us?"

Zelk shot him a look "It's not that big of a deal, Zak."

"Yeah," Spifey cut in, "They got this far because they're a good band, not because they don't have a drummer, that'd be stupid. Plus, I'm sure they record their own tracks anyways, so what does it matter?"

"Whatever." He said, before raising a brow at the smirk that Zelk levelled at him. "What?"

"Nothing, it's just- you look like a bratty kid throwing a tantrum right now."

"I do not." Skeppy's grip tightened on his drumsticks, and he folded his arms across his chest in a way that definitely didn't aid to deter Zelk’s comment.

"I hate to say it Zak, but you really do. And your height isn't helping you much." Spifey rested an arm on the boy's head and he groaned, shoving him off.

"Seriously? You guys act like I'm like, five feet tall."

"You pretty much are." Finn said.

"Finn, you can’t talk, you're wearing _heels_."

He shrugged, "But I'm still taller than you without them."

"Maybe _you_ should get some heels, Zak!" Vurb laughed.

"Shut up, Vurb."

A sudden roar from the audience echoed through the room, lights on the stage flickering on and dancing around in a way that Skeppy would’ve considered obnoxious had he not been too overwhelmed with anxiety to even give a second thought about it - he could tell that the others were feeling the same without even looking at them. They were about to head on stage in front of the biggest audience they’d ever played for, something that, for the past near ten years, they’d been working their asses off for. If they didn’t screw it up, that is.

“That’s your guys’ cue, if you couldn’t tell.” A blonde guy, who Skeppy assumed was part of the crew, gestured towards the stage, a borderline exasperated look on his face.

The group exchanged one last wordless glance, flashing each other nervous smiles, before filing on, one by one.

Just as they were walking onto the stage, Zelk elbowed him lightly, "Hey, if you just channel all that anger from before into your playing, I'm sure we'll be set!"

* * *

The water ran over his hands - cold, because the V.I.P washroom had been taken, which meant that he’d been stuck with the shitty one with the sink that didn’t have proper heating. He took the chance to splash some of it on his face, already damp with sweat, ignoring the way that his hair clung to it awkwardly. He had only broken one pair of sticks during the show, which was definitely better than usual - in fact, the entire show had overall been pretty damn good. The only real slip-up they'd had was Spifey coming in a bit early for one song, but they'd been able to play it off so that it was unnoticeable to anyone who hadn't heard the song nearly a hundred times before like they all had.

Skeppy looked up into the mirror, and smirked, his bad mood from before fizzling away in the afterglow of the show. "Alright, let's get out of here, then," he muttered to himself, pushing the washroom door open and making his way back to their backroom.

He froze in his tracks when he walked in.

It was empty - all of the people, along with their bags, having cleared out save for Skeppy’s beat up backpack slumped beside one of the speakers. They hadn't even had the audacity to take it with them, because of course they’d decided to just head out the moment that he left to go to the washroom, of fucking _course_.

Suddenly that great mood he'd been feeling for a moment there wasn't so great.

Skeppy groaned, reaching into his bag and shifting through its contents to grab his phone and call them. A spare shirt, a pair of earbuds, his extra drumsticks - huh, he'd have to apologize to Vurb for pinning the blame on him, wouldn't he? Either way, it'd have to wait for later, because he still couldn't find his phone.

" _Shit_." The drummer smacked himself in the forehead. Right, he’d given it to Mega before the show so that it didn’t get stolen or anything, but now the mute had just up and left with it, so was that really any better?

...Stupid Mega.

Skeppy grabbed his bag, slinging it over his shoulder - he didn’t even know where the hell the exit to this place was. There were way too many hallways and doors backstage; it made him feel like he was in some kind of endless room in a horror movie, but with less creepy dolls or clowns. In fact, the only reason he'd known which room was theirs in the first place was because of the 'iDots' logo that the staff had pasted on the front. Well, less of a logo and more of a scrap piece of paper with the name written on it, but who really cared anyways.

Oh well, it wasn’t like he could do anything about it now, he'd just have to try and find his way out and hope that the others hadn't actually left yet, because he was pretty sure that the random $8.25 he had lying around in his bag wouldn't be enough to call a taxi.

He hurriedly shouldered open the door and rounded the corner, almost immediately slamming into something. “Shit!”

“Ack!”

Skeppy stumbled back, wincing at the collision, before his eyes landed on the person he'd run into. The only word he could really use to describe the boy was frantic - unzipped jacket hanging off one of his shoulders, clearly having thrown it on haphazardly, and glasses nearly slipping off the bridge of his nose as he stared down at the things that had tumbled out of his unzipped bag onto the floor beneath them.

The brunette's gaze suddenly flicked up to meet his, as if he’d just realized that Skeppy was there, and he drew his eyebrows together, "Oh my goodness, I'm _so_ sorry!"

Really, he shouldn't have been the one apologizing - it was Skeppy who had gone reeling around the corner and slammed into the guy, but he honestly wasn’t in the mood to be handing out condolences at the moment, so he settled for a simple, “It’s fine.”

"Er," The boy stood there for a moment, awkwardly, as if he didn’t quite know what to do next, before he finally spoke up, gesturing to the door Skeppy was stood in front of, “Anyways, could I just-”

"Aren't the yellow lanyards for band members only?" Skeppy cut him off, his eyes having trailed down to the bright strap hung around the boy’s neck, before flicking back up to his face with a raised brow. 

Green lanyards for the crew, white for V.I.P ticket holders, yellow for band members, and purple for anyone else - it was probably the only part of the twenty minute long briefing they'd all been given before setting up that actually stuck with him, most likely because it was one of the first things they'd mentioned before getting into a long talk about legality and contracts and such. He usually zoned out at that point, Mega was the one who dealt with all that stuff anyways. Along with that, Skeppy remembered them really drilling into their brains how important it was not to lose them, since they were apparently very prone to being stolen and pawned off for way more money than they were worth - which seemed to be what had happened here.

The guy frowned, puffing himself up, "I _am_ a band member."

"Yeah, sure, sure." He waved a hand flippantly, "Seriously though, how much did you have to pay to get a hold of that?"

"I'm telling you, I’m part of the band, you muffinhead!"

 _Muffinhead_?

"Well there's only two bands here - the Dream Team's already out on stage, and I'm pretty sure I'd have noticed if my band got an extra member." Skeppy continued.

"Look, I don't need to try and explain myself to you if you aren't even going to listen. I'm supposed to be in the back room already, so I'll have to excuse myself." The guy levelled a look that couldn't quite be considered a glare at him, before kneeling down.

Skeppy watched for a moment as the brunette began grabbing the items that had fallen out of his bag off the floor, then squatted beside him to do the same, picking up a handful of papers that were scattered near him and taking a chance to glance over them. What looked like a combination of sheet music and notes scrawled down in messy printing covered the pages, and Skeppy held them out to the other boy before he allowed himself to snoop any further. The boy met eyes with him for a moment, before letting out a sigh and grabbing the papers from his hands.

" _Thank_ you. Now, I have to get going, but I apologize again for bumping into you earlier!" Before he could even finish the sentence, the boy had already slipped past him and into the room, slamming the door behind him.

The drummer stared blankly at it for a moment, shaking his head with a huff. That was kind of odd, and he considered reporting it to security for a moment, before quickly deciding against it. He had probably just been some stagehand running behind on delivering the rest of the crew their gear or something - maybe they'd just given him a random spare lanyard because he'd lost his last minute, the guy seemed like the type to do that with how disorganized he'd acted. Either way, it wasn't his issue, and Skeppy couldn't really bring himself to care any more about it than that.

Now, which direction did he have to go to get out of here again?

"Zak, hey!"

At the shout, Skeppy swung around, "God- Vurb, you don't have to yell when you're, like, two feet behind me!"

"Sorry," The guitarist said, completely unapologetically, "but we've been waiting for you for nearly ten minutes now. I was getting worried so I, like the great friend that I am, decided to come looking for you."

"And by that I assume you mean that the others _made_ you come looking for me?"

"...I may or may not have lost at rock-paper-scissors," Vurb admitted, "but, hey, it's not my fault that Spifey is weirdly good at it!"

Skeppy rolled his eyes, "Why the hell did you guys just up and leave without me, anyways?"

"Oh, some staff came in and told us that we had to clear out - apparently they needed it for something, but I’m not too sure what.”

Skeppy thought back to the closed door, to the boy who’d rushed inside, and shook his head, "You know, I would've appreciated at least a note or something, you guys didn't even bother to grab my bag."

"We did leave a note- _sorta_. Mega texted you."

"Mega _has_ my phone!"

Vurb laughed, "Well anyways, we're all heading to the front so we can catch the Dream Team’s performance before we go back to the hotel, figured we could get a bit of a taste of their music.”

As if on cue, a voice echoed through the hall from the stage, too muffled to make out over the combination of walls between them and the audience's screams. The two paused for a moment to listen in, before Vurb shot him a grin, heading back the way he'd come. Something in the back of Skeppy’s head made him pause to spare one last glance at the door, but he quickly moved to follow the guitarist down the hallway.

"So, why'd you take so long back there? I know you had to grab your bag and all, but you'd barely made it past the door when I found you." Vurb said.

"Huh? Oh, I ran into some guy when I was leaving, had to help him with something."

" _Help_ him with something?" The brunette raised a brow, and Skeppy sputtered.

"Oh my _god_ , Vurb, no!" He shoved the other boy, who was struggling to contain his giggles. "No, I literally _ran_ into him and he dropped a bunch of stuff, I just helped him pick some of it up and then he headed into the room we were in before."

Skeppy grabbed one of his bag’s drawstrings absentmindedly as he recalled the encounter, "He seemed kinda weird though, kept trying to convince me that he was part of one of the bands. I don't really think he was supposed to be back there, but whatever."

"Dude, you could've just let a serial murderer in there or something!"

"A serial murderer?" Skeppy grinned. "That guy didn't look like he could hurt a fly - he called me a _muffinhead_ as an insult."

"You never know these days." 

The two continued down the rest of the hallways in relative silence, allowing the echoes of the music from the front stage to fill the air, even as it eventually tapered off into loud cheers from the audience.

“Vurb, Zak!” The duo looked from where they’d just emerged from the backstage entrance to where Finn was waving them over, standing with the rest of the group near a wall not too far away from the stage, but far enough away that they were separate from the people crowding it.

“There’s the slowpoke,” Spifey said as the two of them approached, “You guys already missed the opening song. What took you so long, Zak?”

His gaze narrowed into a glare, “Oh, I don’t know, maybe it’s partially because you guys abandoned me in the maze of hallways back there?”

"Come on, 'abandoned' is kinda harsh. Plus, we got Mega to text you where we were."

Skeppy let out a groan, but his reply was cut off by a guitar strum, drawing all of their eyes back to the stage. When he opened his mouth to talk again, Zelk shushed him, pointing at the band. With a huff, he leaned himself against the wall, staring up at the three men positioned up on stage. The lead singer - Sapnap, if he remembered correctly - quickly chimed in with a heavy bassline, before leaning into the microphone. He didn't bother to pay attention to the lyrics, he usually didn't when it came to music; it was part of why he'd become a drummer in the first place. Drumming was less about the words and more about the rhythm, he could just play without having to overthink it. Speaking of, the crash of a cymbal echoed through the concert hall, and Skeppy’s eyes were immediately drawn back to the stage.

The drumming in the song sounded a lot better than he'd expected, as in, he probably wouldn't have been able to tell it was a sampled track had it not been for the lack of an extra member up there with them. He considered, for a moment, that they could’ve just pre-recorded it, but there was still something in his head that protested against it. It sounded real, like he could feel the anticipation of the imaginary drummer on the stage, but maybe that was just his inner drum geek talking.

The song came to an end, and the audience burst into screams, a few fans reaching their hands up to the stage, much to the chagrin of the security guards standing in front. Skeppy looked to his friends, who were similarly cheering loudly, before letting his head fall back against the wall.

* * *

"So, how'd you guys feel about that?" Finn turned from where he was sitting in the passenger's seat to face the others, "I really liked the last song they played - _Out of Time_ , I think? All their music was pretty damn good though, I must admit."

"Yeah, definitely." Vurb said. "Not too different than ours, but different enough that it felt fresh."

"And their singer's really impressive too," Spifey chimed in. "Being able to play bass and sing at the same time is really difficult, I've been trying to get the hang of it for years now and I can barely get through a song without messing it up."

"Totally," Zelk's eyes trailed to Skeppy, who sighed, already knowing what was coming. "What about you, Zak? Changed your mind about them yet?"

"Look, I never said that their music wasn't _good_ -"

"So you admit that it's good."

"I never said it wasn't!" He protested. "All I'm saying is that I think it's stupid how they use sampled tracks instead of having a real drummer. It's not like whether they do or not makes their music any worse, it's just… I don't know, for the integrity, or something!"

"The _integrity_ , huh?" Zelk laughed. "Well, if you're still a bit iffy about the band, just remember that at least we've only got two more shows booked with them. After that, you can be done with them forever."

The drummer rolled his eyes, not even bothering to grace the others with a response when he knew it would just fuel their teasing. Zelk was right, though, they only had one more show with them the next day, and then another a couple days after, so if he wanted he _could_ just be done with them after, other than seeing mentions of them on the radio or online, which were bound to happen considering how quickly they were growing in popularity, yet there was a part of him that was still curious. His thoughts flickered back to the boy from earlier again, before he snuffed them out.

Yeah, after this gig, he’d be done with them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed!  
> I have a few chapters lined up for this fic but tbh they might take a while to come out bc I'm a slow writer q_q  
> -  
> comments and kudos are very much appreciated! <3


	2. Chapter 2

Skeppy really should’ve learned from the day before that leaving any of his stuff with Mega wasn’t a good idea, honestly should’ve known from even _before_ then that it wouldn’t be a good idea, considering the boy’s ‘couldn’t-give-less-of-a-shit attitude’ - so why the hell had he thought that his bag would be any different? Seriously, he had not only just ditched it in some random room while taking his own stuff with him, but he hadn't even bothered to tell Skeppy which one it _was_ , which left him in a panic to try and find it before the others bailed on him again.

Really, it hadn’t _completely_ been his choice to leave it with Mega in the first place, everyone else had already headed on stage to start the soundcheck, and he'd been running a bit behind, so handing it off to the only person he knew there and asking them to put it away for him hadn't seemed like the worst idea. He just hadn't realized that Mega would take "put away" to mean "stash in a secret location somewhere to send Zak into a frenzy and laugh as the chaos unfolds."

He let out another long groan, and Zelk kneeled down beside him, giving him an apologetic smile that almost made Skeppy feel worse, somehow.

“You might want to check out the dressing rooms further backstage?” Zelk supplied, although he sounded so unsure about it that Skeppy figured he’d end up having to check everywhere else anyways. “I think he headed back there earlier - not too sure though, the rest of us all kept our stuff here.”

" _Fuck_." 

Mega hadn't even stuck around so that he could just annoy him until he finally showed Skeppy, either - he'd gone out to grab the car and bring it to the front of the venue which was definitely just his way of saying _"screw you, find it yourself._ " Still, Skeppy pulled out his phone in a last ditch attempt.

**mute**

**mega srsly whered you pt my bag**

**megaaaaa**

**MEGAAAAAAAAA**

**MEGA OH YM GOD ANSWERRRRR WTF**

**I HTE YOU S O MCUH**

Wow, leaving him on 'read' and everything; honestly, Skeppy didn't know how he could expect anything else from him. 

His eyes shot between all of his bandmates, all of them hovering around the exit, likely just waiting for a text from Mega so that they didn't have to walk all the way out to the car in the downpour outside. Seriously, you'd think that being the opening band would entail some kind of front-row parking, but apparently they didn't get that luxury.

Front-row parking or not, up and leaving without finding his bag wasn't an option, even if that meant aimlessly wandering from room to room looking for it. Skeppy was already fairly sure that it wasn’t in their current room, unless the boy had managed to hide it in some corner that he hadn’t already scoured, so he’d have to set his sights elsewhere.

Vurb tapped him on the shoulder as he was walking out, “Hey, where’re you going? The staff said there was gonna be some party thing after the concert just for the Dream Team, so we were all planning on heading out now.”

“I _know_ , dude- Mega stuffed my bag in some other room backstage and won’t tell me where, so now I’m on some wild goose chase searching for it.”

“Oh,” An awkward cough gave away his poor attempt to try and hide a laugh, and Skeppy considered the idea of him being in on it too, before brushing it off. He seriously doubted that Mega would team up with _Vurb_ of all people, even if it was in an attempt to troll him. “Well, good luck with that.”

“Yeah, whatever, just tell the others that I might be a minute.”

* * *

A minute might have been a bit of an understatement, considering it'd already been five and he hadn't gotten any closer to finding his stupid bag. Really, if he hadn't left his phone charger in there, he would've just bailed without it and waited until the practice before their next show to go searching for it, but he wasn't looking to get stuck with a dead phone for a day and a half - especially since he knew that none of the others would be willing to lend him theirs. Half of the rooms he’d tried had been locked, presumably by staff to keep random people (like himself, he supposed) from wandering in and messing with equipment or other things, and the ones that weren’t had been practically empty.

Skeppy screwed with another doorknob, twisting it back and forth violently despite the fact that it was clearly just as locked as most the others - he had to take his frustration out on something, and since Mega wasn’t there then it’d have to be the stupid doorknob for now, even if that meant the crewmate down the hall throwing a borderline perturbed glance his way. He stepped back, giving the door one last light kick with his sneaker before moving onto the next one, slowing his pace as he approached it. He could recognize it as their room from the day before, despite the paper previously labelling it as such having since been taken down. It'd make sense if Mega had put it in there assuming it was the only room Skeppy would think to check - or just to plain be a dick, which was the more likely option.

The door was cracked open slightly and presumably unintentionally, as if someone had tried to nudge it shut hurriedly and failed, leaving it just barely ajar. He looked back down the hall, the crewmate from before having finally turned back around the corner with a stack of boxes in his arms, clearly having more to worry about than the idiot having a one-way fight with a wooden door. Skeppy didn’t think twice before he shouldered it open and peeked inside.

The first thing that he noticed was the person sitting in the middle of the room, hunched over something that the drummer had to lean in further to glance at. It was an odd set-up, an electronic drum set consisting only of a hi-hat, snare, bass, and cymbal sat on the boy’s left, and to his right was what Skeppy could only describe as a soundboard covered top to bottom with dials and switches that made his head spin just looking at it. His eyes drifted back to the figure and- huh, holy shit, the guy hadn’t been lying, then.

As the song came to an end, Skeppy watched the boy from the day before take off his headphones, mussing up his hair a bit in the process, before turning to him and holding up a hand in an awkward wave. "Bad."

He blinked, taken aback. "What?"

"Bad, BadBoyHalo, it's my stage name. I figured I'd introduce myself now since I didn't get a chance to last time."

Skeppy eyed him up and down again - it almost seemed like the name was an attempt to make up for the boy's overall nerdy appearance - shaggy brown hair and glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, not to mention the fact that he was literally hunched over in his seat with a pair of oversized headphones around his neck. His eyes trailed back up to Bad's again, which were staring back at him, still waiting for a response.

Skeppy's mind blanked. "So you weren’t lying about being in the band."

“I tried to explain, you muffin, but you didn’t give me a chance to.” Bad rolled his eyes. "Anyways, you're Zak, right? I heard one of your friends call you that."

"Er, yeah," Damn his useless brain for coming up with the driest responses possible. “Most people just call me Skeppy, though - it’s my stage name.”

Luckily, Bad seemed to ignore how sad his attempt at conversation was. "' _Skeppy_?' That's a pretty weird stage name."

He scoffed, "Like you can talk, mister ' _BadBoyHalo_ ,' that sounds like something an edgy fourteen year old would come up with as a Minecraft username."

"Touché," he said, laughter ringing in his voice. "Anyways, you're part of the opening band, right? The iDots?"

"Yeah, that's us; pretty weird band name too, huh?"

"I guess, although ours isn't much better when you think about it. I really don't know how Dream convinced us to name the whole band after him when he isn't even the lead singer or anything, but I guess 'The Sapnap Team' doesn't have the same ring to it."

Skeppy huffed out a laugh, then cleared his throat. “I- uh, I was just looking for my bag. Blue, drawstring, kind of looks like I’ve had it since fifth grade?” That wasn’t a joke, he was fairly sure it was the same bag he’d been using since then, Zelk certainly seemed convinced it was. Neither of them knew why he hadn’t just gotten a new one yet, considering the strings on this one had started fraying however long ago and looked as if they’d finally give out at any moment, but call it a starving musician’s budget.

“Oh!” Bad lit up. “Yeah, it’s the one sitting in the corner over there, right?”

Opening the door a bit wider to peek at where he was pointing, Skeppy let out a sigh of relief. “That’s the one.”

“I saw it sitting over there and figured one of you guys probably left it, since I didn’t recognize it as any of ours or the crew’s.”

He moved to step inside, but paused - as stupid as it sounded, it almost felt like an invasion of privacy to just walk into the room with the other boy, to try and step around all the wires he had splayed across the floor that Skeppy couldn't even imagine having to set up. Maybe if he just waited in the doorway for a minute, he'd pass it over.

Bad either didn’t seem to notice his hesitation, or just didn't know how to react to it, because he instead chose to turn back to his set for a moment, fidgeting around with some of the switches. 

“Y’know, I listened to some of your guys’ songs before the show yesterday," He broke in. "I have to say that I really like them!”

Skeppy dragged his eyes away from the bag, eyebrows quirking up. “Really?”

“Yeah! _Never_ and _Hesitate_ are probably my favourites from what I listened to, but you guys just have some awesome work in general. Your drumming skills are amazing, dude, I wish I could play like that.”

"Uh, wow, thanks.” Skeppy could feel his face heat up a bit at the comment, and his fingers gripped the sleeve of his hoodie as he brought his hand up to his face in an attempt to hide it slightly. He wanted to return the compliment, but he hadn’t even listened to any of their songs other than the few that he’d heard at the concert, much less knew any by name. “...The one that you guys played after your opening song last time - with the bass line at the beginning? - that one was really good.”

“Oh, _Paranoia_!” A smile spread across the brunette’s face. “I actually wrote that one myselt; it’s from a couple years ago, but it's still one of my favourites too."

“ _You_ wrote that?” Skeppy blurted out. He couldn’t imagine someone who seemed so _wholesome_ , for lack of a better term, writing such a hardcore song, but at Bad’s raised eyebrow, he hurriedly backpedaled. “Not that it seems like you _couldn’t_ write it or anything, but like, that’s really cool dude. I don’t write any of our stuff, I just don’t have as much of a way with words as the others, so I leave it up to them for that stuff.”

In fact, Skeppy was fairly sure that neither he nor Vurb or Zelk had written a full song before. They'd offered ideas to the others, suggestions of lines or edits here and there, but never anything more than that.

Bad hummed thoughtfully, "It's just about getting your ideas out on paper and coming up with ways to piece them all together. You seem like a pretty talented guy, so I'm sure you could if you wanted, Skeppy!"

God, he thought he’d gotten all of his blushing done with earlier. "...Thanks."

The two fell quiet again, the muffled cheers of the audience outside being the only thing keeping the room from being completely silent, before a loud guitar strum broke them out of their stupor, vibrating through the building.

"Ah, that's my cue," Bad gave him a tight-lipped smile and moved to pull his headphones back on. "It was really nice talking to you though, dude."

"Yeah, you too." He opened his mouth to add something, but stopped himself, letting his hand drop from where it’d been resting on the door and holding it ajar. “See you around, hopefully.”

He was barely a foot out of the room when he heard a gasp from behind him.

"Oh wait, Skeppy!" The drummer paused mid-step, and looked back over his shoulder, gaze landing on an outstretched arm holding a bag out to him. "You almost forgot this."

Tearing his eyes away from it, Skeppy reached out to grab his bag from Bad’s grasp, flashing a grateful smile at the other, who returned it brightly. He couldn't help but notice the small gap between his front teeth, an odd detail that he wouldn't really have taken a second thought about on anyone else, but one that he found almost... endearing on the brunette.

Yeah, endearing.

Skeppy pulled his hand away a little too quickly, but Bad didn't say anything, already turned around to face his set, picking up his drumsticks. Thank god for that, because if he hadn't been he would've been able to see the red dusting Skeppy’s cheeks and ears. He let his foot fall away from where it was holding the door open, watching as it swung shut behind him. Skeppy spun around, knuckles turning white where he clutched the bag in his hands, and swallowed the nerves that'd been building up in him. They had no reason to be there, anyways. A buzz in his pocket broke him out of his thoughts, and he pried his hands from the bag’s strings to pull out his phone, glaring at the single message that stared back at him.

**mute**

**ur taking forever. bag is in room 106.**

* * *

Blankets long thrown aside, Skeppy laid on the hotel bed, staring up at the ceiling blankly. He could hear Vurb and Zelk both snoring lightly in the beds on either side of his, and he envied how easy it’d been for them to fall asleep. Zelk had gone to bed about two hours ago, after having a shower and just lazing around watching the T.V that the hotel had supplied them with. It was so small from where their beds were that Skeppy couldn’t understand why he didn’t just use his phone, but maybe that was just because he’d already taken his contacts out. Vurb had passed out as soon as his head hit the pillow, not even bothering to change out of his clothes. He, on the other hand, had been sprawled out for an hour, just staring at the ceiling. Whether it’d been due to the sound of the stupid shower running from the room beside them - which, really, how long did someone have to shower for? It felt as if it'd been over an hour - or something else entirely, he had no clue.

Well, maybe he had a bit of a clue.

They’d had a free day, a break between two performances, and usually it wasn’t something that Skeppy looked forward to. He was the type of person who could work himself to death, just wanting to get better at something rather than taking a break when he needed to. His friends usually watched out for it, and most times they’d force him to take a break on those days, pulling him outside to explore whatever city they’d gotten a gig in or even just going out to get a bite of food. This time was supposed to be different - they’d all agreed that the weight of the show meant that they should use the time to practice, ensuring that their last show with the Dream Team would be their best - but, of course, there had to be a power outage or something that meant the place was locked down for the day to get it fixed for tomorrow. Finn had called them after getting the notice to see if they’d at least be able to come in later on, but apparently their response hadn’t been all that great, since Finn had summed it up as them giving the band a big middle finger.

And so they'd stuck themselves in their hotel rooms - the weather was awful (because of course it was, that was just their luck), so they couldn't bring themselves to go out anywhere, even if they'd be indoors most of the time.

All Skeppy had wanted to do was drown himself in his drumming, it was the easiest way for him to get things off his mind, especially the fact that he’d been looking even less forward to their break day than usual, even with the practice scheduled. Zelk had gone to hang out with the other three for most of the day, complaining that he and Vurb were being too boring. He couldn't really deny it, considering he hadn't done anything besides eat, sleep, or check his phone basically the entire time. Vurb, on the other hand, had played the same few songs from their setlist on his guitar for so long that Skeppy was fairly sure that he'd have all the chords memorized, if he had any clue how to play them.

His hands itched, getting more and more antsy as the day went on, and he wished he could've had his drum set with him then, even if just to jam out with Vurb in the hotel room, wished he could get back to performing, get back to the venue.

 _Get back to Bad,_ a voice in the back of Skeppy's head whispered, and he wished that burying his face in his pillow made it easier to bury that thought.

Yeah, that’d been what was keeping him up.

He’d only known the guy for two days, barely that, and even then they’d only had one real conversation, and yet Skeppy couldn’t get his mind off of it.

Something drew him to Bad, he was… ugh, ‘endearing’ was still the only word he could think of to describe the boy. The way that he’d immediately jumped to use Skeppy’s stage name over his real one, his odd use of the word ‘muffin,’ seemingly as a makeshift curse, he could see people describing it as odd or quirky, but to him, it was just _endearing_. He wanted to know why he was back there and not out on stage with the others, why he went by 'BadBoyHalo' of all things, why he hadn't even given Skeppy his real name.

God, he needed to sleep, he was starting to get delusional.

Skeppy picked his phone up off the bedside table, cringing at the brightness for a moment, before opening Spotify and pressing on the search tab and typing something in. He scrolled down through the results, before landing on one. _‘Paranoia_ ,’ that had been the song that Bad said he’d written, wasn’t it? Looking to Vurb and Zelk to double-check if they were awake, as if it would make a difference, Skeppy leaned over the side of the bed to unzip the front pouch of his bag, slowly as to not make too much noise, and pulled out his earbuds. Plugging them in and laying back on his pillows, he allowed the song to start playing, the familiar bassline he recognized from the concert drifting through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for taking so long to post this chapter!! :[ I had it finished a little while ago but I like going back and editing everything like 10 times over qwq  
> hope you guys enjoyed it anyways!  
> -  
> comments and kudos are very much appreciated! <3


	3. Chapter 3

“Zak?”

“Hey  _ Zaaak _ ?”

“Come on, Sleeping Beauty - you getting up anytime soon, or are you gonna sleep through the whole day? I mean, seriously, it’s almost one. I know we don’t have to be anywhere until five, but that doesn’t mean you can sleep until then.”

Skeppy groaned, rolling onto his other shoulder as if it would help to muffle Zelk’s voice. “I’m getting up.”

“Doesn’t look like it.”

Hauling himself up into a slouch, Skeppy shot a venomous look at him. “Good enough?”

He heard Vurb's laugh ring out from the washroom, and Zelk rolled his eyes, a playful smile on his face. "We were planning on heading out for a little while, grab a bite to eat or something before heading to the venue. You’re welcome to join us if you can drag yourself out of bed in time.”

Waving him off, Skeppy reached up to rub a hand on his face, fingers catching on his earbuds as he did. He moved to pull them out, before hesitating - his music was still playing. It wasn’t the same song he’d fallen asleep to last night, wasn’t one that he recognized at all, but a glance at his phone confirmed that it had just shuffled into a playlist of the Dream Team’s entire discography. There was a moment of hesitation, before he relented, letting his hands drop to his phone and slipping it into one of his sweatpants’ pockets as he pushed himself up.

There was no harm in listening to a bit more of their music while he got ready.

Throwing the sheets haphazardly onto the bed in a way that didn’t aid its appearance in the slightest, Skeppy walked to the bathroom blearily. Vurb was already inside, brushing out his dripping hair and leaving puddles of water on the ground as he did so. He shot a glance at Skeppy as he rubbed sleep out of his eye, holding back a yawn.

"Dude, what happened to you? I swear we all went to bed at the same time last night, how are you only half awake right now?"

"Couldn't fall asleep," Skeppy sighed, "I think I was up 'til like five or something."

"Come on Zak, you know better than that, especially when we've got a show." Vurb pouted.

"I told you, I  _ couldn’t  _ fall asleep! It's not like I made a conscious decision to stay up!"

"Mm, yeah, alright."

Skeppy could tell that he was teasing from the way that he attempted to stifle his laughter, but it tugged on his nerves nonetheless. He grabbed the boy's sleeve, dragging him away from the counter. "Get out of the bathroom, it's my turn."

"What?" Vurb sputtered. "But I'm not even done-"

"Well, now you can wait in line," Skeppy said, shutting the door.

He could hear the other whine from outside, "Come on, can't we  _ share _ ?"

Skeppy’s silence must have given him enough of an answer, because the sound of footsteps prodding away from the door fell soon after. He heard Zelk make a comment, muffled through the door, but didn't have the energy to prod him about what it was, nor to come up with a witty response, so he didn't. Instead, Skeppy stared himself down in the mirror. His hair was sticking up at all angles, pairing with the shaved sides to make it almost look explosive, but he didn't bother to brush it. Just running a hand through it almost gave it that appearance anyways.

Grabbing his toothbrush - labelled with his name in sharpie, because apparently  _ someone _ couldn't tell the difference between light and dark blue and had stolen his toothbrushes, not once, but  _ twice _ \- he finally tuned back in to the music playing through his earbuds. The song now was another that Skeppy recognized from the concert, upbeat but with an alternative rock feel to it. Even though the lyrics flew over his head, he found himself absentmindedly tapping his foot along to the beat.

"Zak, hurry up, I need to take a piss!"

He spat into the sink and glared into the mirror, thank god he didn't share an apartment with any of these guys back home.

* * *

There was a café just down the street from their hotel, tucked into a corner where it clearly didn’t get much traffic, only a single car parked in front of it. Skeppy wasn’t sure whether that was a good or bad sign necessarily, but either way, it was cozy. On the deck outside, umbrellas were still open from the downpour of the day before. They casted a long shadow across the small tables sat there - so small that they definitely shouldn’t have been trying to fit all six of them at one, but they did anyway, crowding chairs from other tables in to fit. The lady at the front desk may have given them a weird look at first, but eventually her interest fell back to her phone; it wasn’t like there were any customers they were stealing the chairs from anyways.

Skeppy stirred around the hot chocolate in his cup - he would’ve preferred an energy drink, but the cool weather warranted something warm. Plus, he wasn’t interested in trying to order a complicated coffee just to hand it off to one of the others when he didn’t like it.

“Remember when we mixed up the time for like, our second gig and showed up an hour late?” Vurb said, and the group broke into laughter.

“God, that was fucking insane,” Finn shook his head, “I swear none of us even knew what we were doing back then."

Despite his lingering tiredness, Skeppy's mood had been quickly lifted as they all talked - reminiscing on old stories of the band. It was mostly of their young, clueless antics from when they'd first formed it or finally started getting gigs, a topic that always seemed to brighten them up even when they'd been at their lowest points in their careers. Laughing at all of it was almost therapeutic, and Skeppy found himself engaging in the conversation even when he wasn't completely paying attention.

"You remember that time with Harvey, right, Zak?” Zelk asked.

“When he tried to run onstage while we were playing to plug something into your keyboard and I smacked him in the face with a drumstick?” Skeppy replied, choking back giggles. “How could I forget? At least he took that broken nose like a champ.”

Speaking of, he should probably call Harvey and let him know that things were going well. He had shot him a few texts here and there to keep him updated, but it wasn’t quite the same. Besides, he was sure the guy could use a break from his parents. Maybe Skeppy could ask for some advice too, while he was at it, because he knew that asking any of the others here would be no better than talking to a brick wall. (A brick wall that would tease you about it until you were in a casket, probably.)

“Well,” Zelk said, breaking Skeppy out of his thoughts for a moment. “Mega and I saw an electronics store on the way over here, so we were planning on heading over there if any of you guys wanna come.”

“Ooh, you think they have that new keyboard I’ve been looking for?” Vurb’s eyebrows shot up, grinning.

“Dunno, I guess you’ll have to see.” Zelk shrugged.

The three pushed themselves away from the table, looking to the others.

“I’m probably just gonna stick around here,” Spifey said. “Maybe I’ll check out some places later if I get the time.”

“Same, I still haven’t finished my coffee. See you later, nerds.” Finn teased, waving them off.

Zelk rolled his eyes, turning heel to follow where Mega had already begun trailing off. Vurb glanced over his shoulder, blowing a kiss at Finn, who fake gagged, choking back a laugh.

"Anyways, how's that song going so far, Geo? I know you said you had some of the next verse planned out."

Skeppy took a sip of his hot chocolate, frowning when he swallowed a mouthful. Was room-temperature hot chocolate still called hot chocolate? Maybe it was just chocolate milk at this point. His eyes landed on a muffin sat on the table - Spifey’s, he was pretty sure. Skeppy took another sip, shielding his face from the other two with his cup as his thoughts wandered. Did Bad like muffins? He had called Skeppy a muffinhead, and he swore that he’d seen a muffin charm on the guy’s lanyard. Maybe he could buy him one for when they got to the venue; would that be weird? He huffed lightly, setting his cup back down on the table, yeah, that would probably be kind of weird.

“Zak, what do you think?”

“Huh?” Skeppy glanced up at Finn, who raised a brow. “Uh, that sounds good.”

He and Spifey exchanged glances. “Are you okay, dude? I mean, seriously, you seem like you’ve been pretty out of it since yesterday.”

Skeppy huffed. “I’m fine, just worried about the last performance, it’s pretty big, y’know? Worried about screwing something up.”

It wasn’t a complete lie, the knot of anxiety about the performance was still in the back of his mind, tangling tighter and pulling itself taught. It was just a bit… overshadowed.

“I know what you mean, dude,” Spifey said, “That first day I was totally wired. I know I fucked up on that one entrance, I'm still kind of beating myself up over it, to be honest."

"Dude, it sounded fine, I'm pretty sure no one but us even noticed."

"Exactly," Finn cut in, "Who's gonna care if you screwed up one part, you played it off well anyways, that's what matters."

Skeppy rested his hand on his chin as Spifey spoke up again, trying to keep his mind centered on the conversation at hand. There was no reason for it to be wandering, anyways.

* * *

“Sounded good, you guys can head offstage now!”

Skeppy leaned back on his stool, letting out a breath and lowering his arms. Placing his drumsticks on his lap for a moment, he shook out his hands, watching as the others set aside their instruments to do the same. Sound checks weren’t usually as strenuous as these ones were, but the group was attempting to squeeze a song or two more in than they usually would. Call it a dumb tactic, as it probably did more to tire them out than give them any practice, but at least it gave them a bit more of a sense of security. Besides, since the Dream Team had already done theirs earlier, it gave them more time for their own before they started letting the audience in.

“Honestly, I’m feeling pretty good about this show.” Finn stepped away from the microphone, turning back to face the others. “We’ve had two shows beforehand, plus a long sound check to make up for missing the practice; I don’t know about you guys, but I think we’re gonna kill it!”

“You’re killing  _ me  _ with those heels,” Vurb smirked, slinging his guitar over his shoulder. “I mean,  _ damn _ , Finn.”

He huffed out a laugh. “Shut up, I’m trying to be motivational here.”

The group ambled backstage, being met with a halfhearted thumbs-up from Mega, who only glanced up from his laptop for long enough to do so. Skeppy rapped one of his sticks against his leg as he slumped into one of the chairs, still jittery from having just stopped playing. Usually he’d finish off a practice with cool down exercises as the others put their instruments away to ease off some of his energy, but he felt too nervous to do so in front of such a big audience - even if that audience only consisted of crew members working on setting up the venue.

A flash of red caught Skeppy’s eye, and he turned to see a familiar mop of brown hair rounding the corner, an eye-bleedingly bright hoodie adorned. His eyebrows shot up, lips curving into a smile, before he quickly dropped it, rubbing his hand to his face in the hopes that no one had noticed it.

"I think I dropped my…” Skeppy pushed himself up, but faltered as he noticed everyone’s eyes on him, clearing his throat. “My phone. I think I dropped my phone, I’m gonna go back and look for it.”

“Your phone?” Spifey pressed, and he held his breath, “I could’ve sworn you’d had it on you just a few minutes ago.”

“Yeah, I mean, that’s what I thought too.”

The bassist’s stare burned into him for far longer than was comfortable, before he dropped it with a shrug. Skeppy’s hands unfurled from the tight fists he'd had them tightened to in his pockets, small crescents left in his palms where his nails had bitten into them, and he nodded in the direction of the hallway. As he moved to leave, he heard someone speak up again from behind him, and slowed his pace.

"Dude, I swear you’ve been so forgetful recently.” Zelk walked in step with Skeppy, shoving his head lightly. “Do we need to get your brain checked out or something? Has all that drumming rustled things up in there?”

“Oh my god, just because I happened to lose track of a few things doesn’t mean that I’ve got a brain injury. Besides, last time it was  _ Mega’s _ fault, not mine.” He shot a glare over his shoulder at said boy, who didn’t even spare a glance in return, despite Skeppy raising his voice to ensure he'd hear the comment. “I promise you, I’m  _ fine _ , you mother hen.”

“Alright, alright. I know, you’re a  _ big boy _ .” He mocked, earning himself a shove of his own, which he just laughed off. “Just make sure to be back for the show.”

Skeppy didn’t bother to grace the boy with a response, simply flashing him a quick thumbs-up as he continued down the hallway. He barely caught sight of Bad as he slipped past a door, pulling it shut behind him, and quickened his pace, swerving around a staff member that he vaguely recognized from one of the days before.

The boy spoke up when he grabbed the doorknob, eyebrows drawn together. "Sorry, but you're not really supposed to be-"

"It's fine," Skeppy cut him off. "I just wanted to talk to Bad really quick."

Before the brunette could get another word out, Skeppy opened the door, a grin melting onto his face as his eyes landed on Bad, who was knelt down, messing with some wiring under one of the tables. Before he could even open his mouth to speak, the boy waved his hand flippantly over his shoulder, making a frustrated noise. “Ant, I already told you, I don’t need any help setting up!”

He froze, “Uh, sorry, is this not a good time?”

Bad jumped, nearly hitting the back of his head on the top of the desk, and spun around to face him, letting out a breath when he met his eyes. “Oh my goodness- Skeppy, I didn’t expect you!”

“Hey,” Skeppy started, and then stopped - why the hell had he just followed Bad in here? “I, uh, I just wanted to chat with you a bit before the show started, but it’s probably not the best time. I’ll just-”

“No, no, it’s alright.” He leaned back against the table leg from where he was seated on the floor. “Sorry for raising my voice earlier, I thought you were one of my friends coming to mess around with my equipment or something. They’ve been getting on me recently about making sure I’m set up on time and everything, but hey, look at who’s ready an hour before we even have to start!” Bad swung his arms out, gesturing to his set-up in an almost victorious manner.

“Yeah, looks like it.” He chuckled, more so at Bad’s reaction than the situation itself.

The brunette faltered for a moment, looking Skeppy up and down, who shifted self-consciously, crossing his arms over his chest. “You don’t have to stand there in the doorway, you know,” Bad said finally, humour ringing in his tone. “The room is big enough for both of us.”

“Oh, yeah, sure.” He pushed the door open wider and stepped in, but remained leaned stiffly against the wall until Bad kicked out an empty box from under one of the tables and nodded towards it, pulling one out for himself at the same time. “Thanks.”

“So, what did you want to talk about?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for how long it took to post another chapter! I wish I was joking when I say I've got 14 other fics on the go rn and lost a bit of motivation for writing this chapter qwq  
> -  
> twitter: @caniivyrne (feel free to dm me abt the fic or anything else! ^^)
> 
> comments and kudos are very much appreciated! <3


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